The Washington Post reports that yet another women’s right activist, Najia Seddiqi, was gunned down in public by a Taliban assailants.

Two assailants riding a motorbike gunned down Najia Seddiqi as she was heading to her office in eastern Laghman province, said Helai Nekzad, the chief of information at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Kabul.

Seddiqi was the head of women’s affairs for Laghman province. Her predecessor in that post was killed five months ago when explosives hidden in her car were detonated.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the act “terroristic” coming up short of actually condemning the act and calling the people who would commit an act like this against civilians terrorists. The Taliban hasn’t accepted responsibility for the act and they probably won’t because of the backlash from shooting a 14-year-old girl in Pakistan last month.

Meanwhile, the terrorists with whom Karzai is trying hammer a peace plan, also bombed and murdered the police chief for Nimruz province and also Afghanistan’s top intelligence officer. All within the last few days.

But, not to fear, the Taliban is planning to send a delegation to Paris for peace talks – which look so promising between murders, apparently.

It’s good to know, as reported by Stars & Stripes that, despite the highest number of attacks in Afghanistan since the beginning of the surge, the US claims that we’re still on track for beating feet;

The number of attacks in the first nine months of 2012 was higher than before the U.S. troop surge that began in 2009, but fell by 3 percent from the same period in 2011. Violence is much lower now than at the height of the surge in 2010, the report said.

Attacks rose 1 percent during the past six months, as NATO and Afghan troops contended with Taliban forces trying regain territory lost in the surge, officials said Monday.

“We are not seeing the Taliban coming back, but we do see the Taliban intent on coming back,” a senior defense official told reporters at the Pentagon, speaking on the condition of anonymity. As a result, the official said, Taliban commanders are telling foot soldiers to stay in Afghanistan for a winter of fighting.

So, our well-publicized withdrawal encouraged the Taliban to hold off until that date arrived and now they’re stepping up their attacks on civilians. I wonder what Joe Bite-Me’s plan for this unforeseen anomaly will be.

Damn, we worked with both of those women while we were there last year. We were the Ag Development Team (ADT) for Laghman. The women’s affairs office, last I knew, was right next to the Governor’s compound, too. There’s a TON of security around there, but the article says she was on her way there, so who knows. What a sad sad deal.

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We are all military combat veterans and we write primarily from that perspective. Everyone who writes here has a Combat Infantry Badge, a Combat Medic Badge, a Combat Action Badge or a Combat Action Ribbon. We write about issues that matter to combat veterans..read more »